Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Measuring the hours by "Island Time"

We are most fortunate to have generous kids. Jonathan and Kelly own a very lovely beach house on Mustang Island, one of the barrier islands off the coast of southern Texas. The island is named for the wild horses brought in by the Spaniards in the 1500's. History says that their ship wrecked (the Spaniards', not the horses') and the native Indians captured the survivors. No sign of those horses nowadays, though.

The laid-back beach town is named Port Aransas.

We spent most of last week there. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

The channel of water that comes in off the Gulf of Mexico to Corpus Christi Bay must be crossed. In Port Aransas, Texas DOT provides ferry boats to transport cars back and forth from the mainland to the island. The width is narrow, but many large and tall ships (among other things, details to come later) need access to this waterway, so a bridge would not be feasible. Instead, these ferries slide back and forth all day and night. There are busy times when the wait could be an hour long for the 5 minute ride, believe it or not!

It is very exciting to finally get moving on that ferry--smelling the salt air, hearing the gulls cry and watching the dolphins that play in the water, racing the ferries back and forth. The pelicans are the official greeting committee. See the one sitting on the post?

And then we are on the island.

Port Aransas is famous for 2 things mainly: great birdwatching and great fishing.

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Who I Am

I am a lover of God's mountains, rivers and the earth's beauty. I am a wife, daughter, mother, sister, grandmother and friend. I winter in Texas and am a travel nurse in Fairbanks, Alaska, in the summer.